SAINT-AMAND-MONTROND, France -- Lance Armstrong dominated
the competition once again Friday, winning an individual time trial
by nearly 1½ minutes to tighten his grip on a third straight Tour
de France title.
|  | | Overall leader Lance Armstrong is a blur while winning the 18th stage Friday. |
Wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey and grimacing with
effort, Armstrong rode the 37.88 miles in 1 hour, 14 minutes, 16
seconds -- an average speed of 30.5 mph -- to win a stage for the
fourth time in this year's Tour.
"I think that I'm at the highest level of my career,"
Armstrong said. "That was an effort that we've never seen
before."
In temperatures averaging 86 degrees, he was a stunning 1:24
faster than Spain's Igor Gonzalez Galdeano and 1:39 faster than
Germany's Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner considered Armstrong's
main rival this year.
"I'm in a great state of mind," Armstrong said. "This is a
good time to be Lance Armstrong.
"I've never felt so good in a time-trial. The course was
perfect. I had great legs."
Only an injury, seemingly, could stop Armstrong now from
becoming just the fifth rider -- and first American -- to win the
Tour de France three consecutive times since it started in 1903.
The victory Friday increased Armstrong's edge over second-place
Ullrich in the overall standings to 6:44 with just two flat stages
remaining before the three-week Tour ends on the Champs-Elysees in
Paris on Sunday.
Spain's Joseba Beloki finished sixth in the stage and overtook
Kazakstan's Andrei Kivilev for third place overall, 2:21 behind
Ullrich. Kivilev, 17th on Friday, is 48 seconds in back of Beloki.
Beloki finished third last year behind Armstrong and Ullrich.
Armstrong has won four time trials in the last three Tours,
including the grueling uphill ride between Grenoble and Chamrousse
this year.
He claimed his only stage victory in the 2000 Tour by winning
the 36-mile stretch from Freiburg, Germany, to Mulhouse in eastern
France. In that stage, he averaged 33.471 mph, a Tour record for a
stage longer than 15½ miles.
"Last year I was frustrated at this point in the Tour to have
not won a stage," Armstrong said. "I always feel it's important
that the yellow jersey (wearer) race the final time trial with a
100 percent effort and try and prove that he's the best rider in
the race and that he deserves to win the Tour de France."
The Texan also won the two toughest mountain stages of this
year's Tour, with victories at L'Alpe d'Huez in the French Alps and
at Pla d'Adet in the Pyrenees, where he essentially locked up the
20-leg race.
But on Friday, Armstrong was careful not to appear complacent
about the prospect of a third title.
"It's not over," he said. "I have to be smart, to be safe. I
would hate to have a problem (Saturday) or the last day.
"But if you do have a problem and you crash and hurt something
or don't finish, then you lose the race."
Saturday's stage is 92.84 miles from Orleans to Evry outside
Paris.
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
|
ALSO SEE
Ratto: Tour de Truth
Friday's Tour de France results
Baguet wins stage; Armstrong keeps lead
Tour de France: Day-by-day
|
